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Friday, January 27, 2017

Review of "The Ageless Warrior"

Having heard many stories about Archie Moore from my grandfather, I was interested to learn more about this boxer who holds the record for most career knockouts. This book was a very good source in order to do so. So, for my last review before taking a break for a few days, here is the review of "The Ageless Warrior."

Archie Moore is a name
that many boxing fans may recognize as he is considered to be one of the best
boxers in the history of the sport.He
held the light heavyweight title, fought at a time when weekly bouts for a
fighter were not uncommon and holds the record for the most knockouts in a
career.Between opponents and fighters
he helped train, the time range that covers Moore’s career ran several
decades.His career is captured in this
book by Mike Fitzgerald.

The writing about Archie’s career is very good as readers who know about the
man but not many details (such as this reviewer) will learn a lot about just
how good a boxer Moore was.The book
gets a little bogged down with the details, but this is balanced with many
entertaining anecdotes about Moore and some of his quirks.One of these that is mentioned several times
is about his diet.Dubbed the “Aborigine
Diet” by Moore, he supposedly learned this diet when he was fighting in Australia.He would chew meat, swallow the juices, but
then spit out the meat.This would allow
the eater to gain all the benefits of the meat without forcing the body to
digest the meat.Whether or not this was
effective, it was often used by Moore as making weight was a constant challenge
for him.

The book also
discusses other parts of Moore’s life, such as his five marriages, his frequent
travels and his dedication to improving the lives of children, something that
was his calling once his boxing career was over. This part of Moore is not
described in as great of detail as his fighting was, but it is sufficient for
the reader to get the full picture of what kind of man Archie was.

This is one example of the many stories that will keep the reader engaged with
this book.The narration of the
audiobook was also noteworthy in that Telles never seemed to get too excited
during action passages, nor too emotional during down times.That was important to the overall enjoyment
of this book as the book as a whole was very much pro-Moore and there were very
few negative aspects about him mentioned, whether the discussion was his
personal or professional life.While
that itself may not be bad, at times that can feel like simply a long
promotional publication for the particular fighter.Fortunately, this was not the case here and
readers who wish to learn more about Archie Moore will find this book will
contain a lot of good information.